The League
by HiILikeDragonsArchive
Summary: AU. Hiccup's always looked up to the Supers. His dad's been saving the world as long as he can remember. Now, finally, he's got a chance to enter The Vast's world of superpowers and superheroes. Easy, as long as he can be satisfied with being average.
1. Episode 1

**Superhero AU. Written 7/4/2014.**

"You don't look like a super to me," a voice sneered behind Hiccup, and he whirled around. His bag accidentally swung out, just barely missing one of the tall blond twins staring at him skeptically. They were dressed in white, with accents of orange and blue splashed across their chests. He'd heard of them through his father- people called them The Elements, though the twins could really only manipulate fire and water.

"Sorry!" he blurted, his tools clanking inside his satchel as he readjusted it at his side. Both of the teenagers raised their brows at him from behind their masks. "And I'm not. I kinda got, uh, drafted."

The word _drafted_ made it sound like he'd been forced against his will. In truth, he was positively _vibrating_ with excitement, watching the room of young heroes with awe and jealousy. There was spandex as far as the eye could see, but despite the obvious eyesores that inevitably meant, Hiccup was in heaven. All his life he'd watched his father work, and now he was getting an opportunity to be a part of that. He was absolutely giddy.

The male twin- Tumble, they called him while suited- gave him a look up and down. In the crowd of colorful costumes and brightly decorated masks, it was obvious that Hiccup stuck out in his jeans and t-shirt. Even his military-grade fireproof jacket was worn and burned in places. It was no wonder The Elements could pick him out. "So. What's the name?"

Hiccup could faint. He'd given it some thought, the identifier he'd have to adopt to be come a part of his dad's world. Nothing had stuck, but just the thought of a super asking him for _his_ hero name made him feel ten times cooler. "Oh, uh, no name yet. I've got a few ideas on the table."

He was trying to be more nonchalant than he felt, but he wasn't sure how well that was working out.

"So..." The girl- Rumble- wrinkled her nose at him. She probably wouldn't, if she knew _he_ knew their real names, but Hiccup knew that was a line that one didn't cross. "What do you _do_?"

"I'm just your everyday mechanic," he answered with a sigh and a smile. "I'm- uh- I'm friends with The Vast. I've done some work for him, so he invited me to work for his new league."

There was a gasp not far away. Their heads turned to see a large young man headed their way. His hands made grabbing motions towards Hiccup, and his eyes were wide.

" _You're_ the mysterious mechanic behind Blacksmith's new robotic prostheses?" The masked teenager stepped close, looking like one of Hiccup's dad's adoring fans whenever they clamored for autographs. "The Vast would never confirm the inventor's identity- the whole super community was talking about the responder technologies in Blacksmith's arm! It's absolute genius!"

Hiccup felt an amazed smile pulling at his mouth. "Really?" he half-laughed, brow lifted high. _That_ was something his dad had never mentioned. "Thanks."

"They call me Rolodexter," the young super told him. "Eidetic memory, super level IQ scores." He stuck out his hand for Hiccup to shake.

"Impressive," Hiccup commented, sliding his palm against Rolodexter's and giving it a couple of quick pumps. "I didn't test so great for that. Probably should've studied more."

"So, basically you're going to be building our gadgets and stuff?" Tumble interrupted, seemingly more interested now that someone had actually acknowledged that Hiccup had a skill.

"Yeah, probably." He ran his fingers through his hair and nodded. It was nearly impossible at this point for him to keep a grin off his face. "I won't be going out on jobs or anything. I'll just be hanging out back at headquarters or whatever."

"So basically a sidekick," Rumble said flatly. There was no smirk in her voice, but Hiccup winced nonetheless.

"Something like that. I guess."

A new voice, sharp and feminine, broke into the conversation.

"What's wrong with being a sidekick?"

Hiccup turned on his heel and nearly swallowed his tongue. Glaring at the twins, dressed from head to toe in a shiny purple costume, was undoubtedly the most beautiful heroine Hiccup had ever come in contact with. Blonde hair spilled from beneath her mask, which failed to conceal a pair of heartbreakingly blue eyes. She stood with arms folded in front of her, one curvy hip jutting to the side.

"Well?" she asked, raising a slender blonde brow at The Elements.

"Nothing," Rumble grumbled.

"She was just saying," Tumble added.

"Lots of credit goes to the heroes," the super girl was saying. Hiccup swallowed hard when he realized those blue eyes had turned to him. "There's a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes, though. Everyone forgets it's not just the muscles that save the day." She took a step forward then and offered her hand. "I'm-"

"Twist," Hiccup finished for her, shaking her gloved hand with a little more enthusiasm than necessary. This particular heroine was of particular interest to his dad, which meant that Hiccup spent a lot of time hearing about her. He'd read her file while The Vast was trying to narrow down his pool of candidates for the new league. She'd had a different costume in the clips he'd seen of her, and she worked for a hero rumored to be her uncle. He'd died in battle, though, and when she'd reemerged into the public's eye, they kept trying to name her "Elastilass" or "Flexibabe".

She'd stretched her middle finger all the way across the destroyed remains of a derailed train to let the reporter know how she felt about that last one.

Twist seemed surprised, but not put off. "Yeah. And you're the new gadget guy?"

Hiccup started to introduce himself, but cut himself off when he realized he was about to give out his real name. "That's me," he told her instead. "The name's still in the works."

"Hmm. Cool." She gave the twins another warning look and then turned to leave. "Well, nice meeting you, Tinker Toys. Don't get eaten alive." And then she strutted away, heading towards the front of the tower where The Vast was gathering other teen heroes for a speech.

Hiccup watched her leave, a little dazed. Next to him, Rolodexter sighed and nodded, patting Hiccup's shoulder with understanding. "Bends her way right into your heart." Then he and The Elements followed after Twist.

Hiccup shifted his bag over his shoulder. It was heavy, but he was used to the weight of his tools. He was more distracted by the half-smile the super girl had given him before she left, and he stumbled over his own feet as he tried to make his way to the small crowd.

The _toys_ part was a little dumb. But _Tinker_? Tinker, he might be able to work with.


	2. Episode 2

Astrid was the last person to visit the League's exclusive lab after he dubbed it "The Forge".

His dad was the first. He'd followed him as Hiccup ran from screen to screen, stammering out excited exclamations and draping himself over the stainless steel work table. Stoick chuckled and clamped a heavy hand on his son's shoulder before leaving him to drool over the drawers full of specialty tools. Then as soon as The Vast exited, Fishlegs had slipped in after him to join Hiccup in his geeky delight.

Then a week later, the twins wandered in. They touched a lot of equipment and pushed a lot of buttons, but mostly Hiccup's. After nearly sacrificing Tuffnut's fingers to an unfinished laser spear, they'd decided to pester the teen for impossible new utility belts. It had taken several minutes for him to explain that a death ray was not in fact a feasible addition to The League's high-tech armory.

It was another couple of weeks before the door _whooshed_ open and a pair of boots slowly thudded down the Forge stairs. They walked with such a command that Hiccup was expecting to see his father when he turned in his swivel chair. Not a logoed sweatshirt, white jeans, and a sleek blonde ponytail. After tearing away his magnifying goggles and shaking his head, he realized that it wasn't just a frowning mouth that had entered his domain, but the super heroine it belonged to.

"Twist," he blurted as her eyes scanned over already cluttered desks and gutted inventions. "Hey."

"Astrid," she corrected. "So this is your secret laboratory?" Even though Rolodexter had quickly become Fishlegs, and The Elements turned into Ruff and Tuff after their first prank— he still couldn't get used to calling the chilly girl by her real name.

"Um, I call it 'The Forge', actually." Hiccup's knee bounced restlessly as he watched her move to his work table and examine the scatter of notes and calculations. "Have you met Blacksmith?"

"Once." She used a single finger to turn a comic of Toothless in a super mask right-side up. "With my uncle."

"Well, he kind of taught me everything I know." With a half-smile, he shrugged and gestured at his surroundings. "So it's kind of a nod to him."

He still wasn't over the extravagance of it. Since he could hold a screwdriver, he'd been building stuff in his garage, squeezing around his father's car and boxes of Christmas decorations as he worked. Having a space to call his own, not to mention its extraordinary equipment, was incredible. It was by far the best gift he'd ever received, being invited to work for The Vast's experimental League.

An awkward silence stretched between them, and Hiccup twiddled his thumbs uncomfortably while she explored. "Is there anything I can build for you?" he finally asked when she stilled and leaned back against a nearby counter. "You like projectiles, right? I could throw together some homing knives?"

The blonde shook her head, running her tongue over her teeth. Her gaze wouldn't settle, and though she'd never had a problem with it before, she couldn't seem to meet his eyes. It suddenly struck him that _she_ was nervous. He still wasn't able to look at her— even in pajamas— without a sudden bout of ungraceful speechlessness. _She_ had never shared that misfortune.

"I need something," Astrid nodded. She crossed her arms self-consciously over her body and stared at her half-laced boots. "I'm not sure if you can help. My family's mechanic couldn't."

Hiccup raised his brows, pushing his hair back from his forehead. "Sure. Whatever I can do."

Her eyes flashed to the door to the Forge, and then she cleared her throat. If he wasn't mistaken, color was rising in her cheeks. With a step away from the counter, she reached for the hem of her sweatshirt.

Suddenly seventeen years weren't enough to keep Hiccup's jaw from dropping when a beautiful girl stripped in front of him.

The shiny purple fabric of Twist's super suit gleamed in the florescent lights as she tugged the garment over her head. He was just barely gathering his thoughts, blinking away the thought of the skin he'd been expecting to see.

"Get weird about this and I'll kick your ass," she muttered, setting her sweatshirt on the counter and stepping forward. She hitched herself up on Hiccup's work bench. Nudged aside the microchip he'd been poking at with tweezers. Then she reached up to her neckline and peeled back the edge of her suit.

A long red welt curled around her shoulders where the fabric cut into her flesh. Hiccup cringed without thinking.

"Yeesh." He traced a finger just a breath above her skin.

"I'm knife-proof, fireproof, and more malleable than a piece of Double Bubble." Astrid let go of the neckline and then pulled back the edge of her sleeve. Where the hem had been resting around her wrist, the suit left another painful-looking stripe. He ran a fingertip across the sewn seam, testing the fabric. "This stupid costume hurts more than most of my fights."

"You want a new suit?" Hiccup couldn't help but let the surprise slip into his voice. Not a plasma blaster, not a battle mace, not heat-seaking throwing knives, but a new supersuit. He wasn't exactly a tailor, but then again— this wasn't exactly a Sunday dress.

He looked up from her wrist. Her eyes were on his face. For a shade of blue so cool, they flickered with a fire that could burn. And it reminded him of a different blaze— the smoke-belching explosion he'd seen on a tiny television screen in a junkyard office. Gobber had gone still at the reporter's voice, the grin falling from his face as a camera man focused on a blonde girl in a white supersuit. She was skinny, but not because of her young age. Her arms were thin from stretching into the flames, even as policemen pulled her away from the fire. Then they'd cut away to a smiling photo of Finn the Fearless.

Astrid's nostrils flared as she exhaled. She rolled back her sleeve. "I want a new suit."

With a nod, Hiccup swallowed and rubbed his thumb over his forefingers, feeling the fabric's texture there. His brain worked, his gears turning.

"I'll do what I can."


	3. Episode 3

The metallic _whoosh_ of The Forge's door just barely registered in Hiccup's mind, along with the light sound of footsteps descending the stairs. Wrist deep in wiring, he didn't even look up at the sound of her voice.

"Tink?"

"Yeah?"

The remains of his father's broken Battle-axe gave a sudden snap, and Hiccup flinched at the bite of electricity at his fingers. A curl of smoke puffed from the gadget. He resisted the urge to tear off his magnifying goggles and chuck them to the other side of the room. Sighing with frustration, he raised the twinging fingertip to his lips and sucked at the little burn.

Astrid paused a few feet away. The goggles distorted his vision so he couldn't see her, but he suspected she was resting her hands on his cluttered work table. At his feet, his previously napping cat jumped up to go weave between her ankles. "Nobody's seen you since we got back," she began, rapping her knuckles absently on the stainless steel. "Have you eaten?"

Hiccup glanced up at the clock to check the time, like he hadn't already been shooting it nervous looks every five minutes. "I will after I finish this," he muttered, more for her sake than his.

She moved closer, to his shoulder. "Dex was wondering about those contacts you were working on. Ever get those figured out?"

He gestured absently to his left before burying his hands back into his father's axe. It had been crushed, and even after Hiccup had reforged the steel shell, there was still a mess of rewiring and broken pieces to fix. He'd already used a pair of tweezers to fish out the slivers of broken glass from the lens of the laser redirection mirrors. Any accidental brush of the laser function before he got those replaced might mean losing a finger or two.

"What's this?"

Resisting the urge to exhale with sharp annoyance, he looked up and pushed back his goggles. His gaze fell on Astrid's hands— in one, she held the little contact case meant for Rolodexter. In the other was a tiny pin with a matching ear bud.

"It's for Strongarm," he answered, slouching back in his leather rolling chair. Toothless pounced up to the countertop and strategically padded around stray tools and parts. The device was for his cousin, if he ever answered his distress call. Of all the times for Snotlout to fall off the face of the earth.

She raised a blonde brow at him. Her mask was missing, and her hair was down. Any other day, he'd be pleased by the sight, but his mind was too preoccupied to appreciate it fully. "The Vast won't like it."

"Yeah, well, he's not really in a position to argue," Hiccup said bitterly. He glared at her feet and tapped a wire stripper with barely concealed anxiousness.

Astrid softened, setting down both inventions. Her hand stretched out to brush across his knuckles, and the hand holding the little tool stilled.

"It's gonna be okay, Tinker. We'll get him back." Her voice was gentle, but it didn't have quite the reassuring affect she was hoping for.

His lips pressed in a thin line. Setting down the wire stripper, he jerked his chin towards his tall storage tower. "Hand me a size D phillips head?"

She retracted her hand. It stretched across the room to the bank of drawers and tugged open one or two before finding the screwdrivers. After a second of digging, she found the tiny tool and held it out to him. Her arm returned to its normal elasticity to rest at her side.

Hiccup pulled his goggles back down and looked back to the Battle-axe. Feeling her concerned gaze on his profile, he tried to focus on removing the panel that likely hid the intersecting wires he was looking for. She'd always been a good companion to have while he worked— she knew when he wanted conversation, and she knew when he needed quiet. Even her presence felt distracting today, though, like any minute he might shove everything aside and pull her to him. He imagined things might seem much less worse with his nose buried in her hair.

The axe gave another little pop, but this time it was accompanied by a little beep instead of smoke. That was good news, at least.

She was petting Toothless— Hiccup could hear the feline purring. "Nobody knows for sure what your relationship is with The Vast," she began, and Hiccup stiffened at the thought of their well-kept secret. "But I know what it's like to sit by and feel helpless."

That stirred a little ire in him. "No, you don't," he hissed, only barely managing not to slam his tweezers down. "Ast— Twist, you're a super. You have _no_ idea what it's like to stay behind while everyone else is in danger." He shoved back his goggles again, well aware it likely made his bangs stick up like a mad scientist. "Sure, I get to help. I make fancy utility belts and neat toys, but when it comes down to it, _he's_ in Alvin's hands, and _I'm_ fixing another broken weapon."

He shook his head and glowered at the computer monitor. "Not this time. This time, things are going to be different."

Toothless, sensing his owner's frustration, loped over and leapt into Hiccup's lap. The human didn't even acknowledge him.

Astrid shifted her weight to her other hip and gave him an uneasy glance. "What are you going to do?"

Hiccup sniffed and shrugged, tapping his fingers restlessly. "Probably something stupid."

She snorted. "You do that on a biweekly basis."

His eyes slid to the glass door of the storage compartment settled in the back corner of the forge. The sheen of polished black metal winked back at him, and he gave the untested suit a grim frown. "Then, something crazy."


	4. Episode 4

"Keep your fire out of my face!"

"Keep your face out of my fire!"

Hiccup lifted his eyes to the ceiling and rubbed the back of his neck with exasperation. "Rumble. Tumble." Pulling the mouthpiece to his headset closer to his lips, he returned his gaze to the screen in front of him. "Stop fighting for five seconds so I can listen to Dex."

Using the micro soundboard at his right, he faded out their mics and amped the volume on Rolodexter's. In his ear, he could hear crumbling concrete and the faint noise of Twist's mutterings. Her volume never got turned down. "Okay. One more time, Dex." Hiccup brushed away Toothless as the cat wandered lazily in front of his keyboard.

"I said, 'I think the Berserker is preparing to utilize an inductively coupled plasma blast'!" The young genius was obviously trying to pinch his official League badge higher so that Hiccup could hear, but it only served in making his voice staticky and screechy. Still, though. It had been clear enough. "Any ideas?"

"Oh gods," he swallowed, feeling his heart suddenly clench with dread. His pulse picked up a frantic rhythm, and he raked his fingers through his hair. "You're- you're sure?" The twins and Twist both heard the panic in his voice and started blurting questions, but he knocked down their mics so he could focus.

"About eighty-six percent positive," Rolodexter answered on a squeak. There was a crashing noise on his side of the line.

"Turn on your eyes for me."

Hiccup pushed his rolling chair to the other side of his counter, knotting his hands in his hair as the small screen designated for Dex's contacts flickered to life. It took a minute for the blinking stabilizers to kick in, but then Hiccup's own eyes were widening as he took in the sight of the giant robot tearing through Berk. It was at least six stories tall, with a shiny horned head and what looked like oversized cannons for fists. It shot a flash of light towards Rumble, who froze a geysering fire hydrant to absorb the blast.

"See here?" Rolodexter's gloved hand appeared on the screen as he tapped a place on the robot's chest. He circled what looked like a on old school film projector reel in the machine's armor, except this one was made of molded steel and spinning blindingly fast, and the circle appeared on Hiccup's screen. Dex then drew two arrows pointing up to the shoulders and then down each arm. "If I'm right, one of these arms is creating a time-varying electric current. The other produces a time-varying magnetic field. All fancy science talk aside, if the two combine, we're looking at a plasma similar to the surface of the sun."

Hiccup's head spun. He felt a little breathless. "Okay. Uh." Pinching the bridge of his nose, he tried to wrack his brain for a solution. "What would we need to do make the city _not_ burn in a fiery blaze."

"Ideally? Stop his processors. But Twist can't get close enough without getting shredded, and the new thing you made for Strongarm is making slow progress on the shoulder joints."

He watched the screen with horror as Snotlout ducked out of the way of a miniature rocket. The projectile missed and exploded midair, but it dislodged his cousin and his hold on the giant robot's neck. Strongarm went flying, and Twist just managed to stretch up to catch him in time. The laser gun Hiccup had snuck him, however, was flung out of sight.

"Tinker? Tinker, can you hear me?"

Hiccup shook his head, snapping out of his distraction. "Yeah, loud and clear, Dex." His heart was a pain in his ribs as it slammed adrenaline through his system. He wondered if he had a super's biology, if the panic would hurt this much. "How much time do we have?"

"Uhh..." On screen, the living machine's chest began to glow with a suppressed light. "Three minutes?"

"Damn it." Hiccup slid back to his main screen, tapping out of Rolodexter's contacts page until he could pull up his tech menu. His hand shot out to fix Astrid's volume. "Twist. You hear me?"

"Hey, Tink." She sounded out of breath, but not afraid. The calm in her voice was like a balm compared to Fishlegs' anxiety.

"I need you to get Strongarm to Rumble. Rumble, go ahead and be taking off your cuffs."

In the background, he could hear the heroine's confused complaining, but it was just barely audible over the high-pitched whirring that was beginning to sound over all of their voices. When Astrid spoke again, he could hear all of their microphones overlapping. It was distracting him, and Hiccup had to take a deep breath.

"Okay, what are we doing?"

Hiccup's fingers tapped across the touch screen, making minor adjustments to the cuffs he'd invented for Rumble as one of his first League inventions. They were basically giant vacuums for energy that could freeze a gush of water in a second- it wasted less of Ruffnut's energy so that she could perform longer. Now it would have to function at high gear.

"I've turned down as much as I can from this side," he told the group. "Have Strongarm open the cuffs at the seam as _gently_ as he can. There should be some flexibility, but we don't want them to snap." Blood and high pitched whirs filled his ears as the teens followed his directions. A bright red "WARNING" flashed over Rumble's Ice Cuffs' page, but he tapped _ignore_.

"How much do you need them open?" he heard Snot ask into one of the others' badges.

"As straight as you can get without breaking the coils or snapping any of the wiring." He hoped his tone didn't sound as terrified to them as it did to him.

" _Tinker!_ "

Hiccup's head snapped up at the sound of Dex's shriek- when he looked to the screen receiving images from the hero's contacts, ice froze in his veins. The robot had stopped paying attention to the group of heroes, but now it was putting its hand-like appendages together. It was about to blow.

"Okay, Twist, you're going to have to make them work." He was shaking. It was just him and his cat in his high-tech, air-conditioned lab, and meanwhile, his only friends were about to be blown to bits. There was no telling how much death and destruction was about to ensue. Not for the first time, he cursed his normalcy.

"What do you need, Tink?" There was a twinge of nervousness to her voice now. It didn't soothe.

"I need _those_ cuffs in _that_ robot. One in each arm. Can you get up there?" His fingers felt like they were about to break his headset, he was holding it so tightly.

Astrid was quiet for a moment, and then she said, "I'm on it."

Hiccup looked back to the visuals. Static was beginning to cut across the images, but he could see Twist stretching towards the giant machine. "Dex. Dex, what's going on with your contacts?"

"I don't know-" His voice was barely audible over the sharp screech of the building plasma. "-not working?"

"The picture's going snowy on me."

The last thing he saw was Twist's blonde ponytail bouncing over her shoulders as she climbed the robot's let. Then it all went gray. He couldn't see. He could hardly hear. The high-pitched noise was becoming so loud, he cried out in pain and threw the headset off. Even his main screen flickered, and Toothless began to meow pathetically. Hiccup slammed his eyes shut and shoved his hands over his ears.

And then suddenly- nothing.

No screech, no flickering, no perturbed cat noises. The monitor used for Rolodexter's contacts flashed back to a blank screen, which read only, "Error: Device Not Connected."

Hiccup shook. The air in his lungs rushed past his frozen lips on something like a near-sob. His hands felt numb, and a faint ringing still echoed around his head. "Guys?" he whispered. With fingers trembling so badly he could hardly navigate, he flipped through all of their tech stats. Every single one of their devices had a bright red "WARNING".

Hiccup's throat felt tight. He shook his head and knotted his hands in his hair. Then, scrambling from his chair, he pushed away from the counter, nearly tripping over his work table. He sprinted up the stairs and nearly broke down the Forge door shoving past it. His ankle caught painfully in the doorway on its swing shut, but he just righted himself and limped forward. The Forge stairs opened to the Tower's main room, where six screens played the news from several different local stations.

Hiccup slowed to a stop beside Tuffnut's favorite chair. He all but collapsed to the floor. A painful wave of relief shook him to see the smiling face of a reporter as she spoke over a shot of a firetruck hosing down the robot's blackened remains. But then the sight in the bottom right of the screen made his eyes widen.

"Twist."


	5. Episode 5

Hiccup's hands moved frantically over his keyboard, trying to manually restart the group's badges.

"C'mon," he muttered to himself, his whole body shaking with panic. "Think, Tink, think." The only conclusion he could draw was that the residual explosion from the robot and Ruff's cuffs had sent out a blast of energy effective enough to cause all of their tech to malfunction. No matter what he did, he could only find WARNING notices and blank screens.

He nearly tore apart the soundboard trying to reconnect their audio feeds. "Guys, can you hear me?" he spoke into his headset. His voice trembled more than he wished it would, and there was only a faint buzz answering in his ears. "Guys, c'mon! Someone tell me what's wrong with Twist... Guys, _please_!"

Running his hands through his hair with frustration, Hiccup resisted the urge to slam his fist against the keys. He tried to close his eyes to calm his mind, but when he did, the image of his friends crowded around a still, blonde body was burned into his lids. All he'd been able to make out from the tiny picture on the news report were flashes of purple and a pale hand.

He shouldn't have sent her to stop the robot's blast. He should have figured out a safer way. He shouldn't be staring at a blank computer screen, his heart pounding twice as hard at the thought of Astrid's going quiet.

His hand shot out to slam her volume as loud as it would go. "Twist? Twist are you there?" Silence. Just silence. "Astrid, are you okay? Gods, please no. _Astrid_!"

There was a sudden screech of feedback in his ear that made him wince, and then a crackle.

"- you doing,Tinker!" Fishlegs' staticky voice sounded faintly over the line. "Code names! Our location isn't secure!"

"Dex?" Hiccup shot to his feet, accidentally knocking his chair a good few feet away and sending Toothless sprinting for cover. "You can hear me? Tell me what's going on. Is she alive? Is she okay?"

"We've been able to hear you for a few minutes now, but I guess you couldn't hear us. I poked at some of the badge wiring." The audio was still patchy, but at least Rolodexter's voice didn't sound panicked or grief-stricken. "She's not good, but she's alive."

"What happened?" Just that word- _alive_ \- it was enough to make the pain in his chest ease. His grip on his headset could have broken it.

"We just got her in the plane, headed back to HQ. She's not conscious, and her heart sounds kind of funny. And she's all..." He hesitated, though it didn't seem to be for a lack of words. It was as if he was nervous of Hiccup's reaction. "She's melting."

"Melting?" The question was sharply exhaled.

"It's something about the plasticity of her cells, I think." Rolodexter swallowed, and Hiccup could just barely make out the sounds of one of the twins' voices in the background. "She used her body to block the remains of the explosion after she got the cuffs in. They counteracted the plasma for the most part, but I think Twist absorbed all of the residual energy."

Hiccup rubbed the back of his neck and thought about all the theories they'd discussed concerning Astrid's cellular composition. Her skin didn't tear or burn like regular human skin. Her bones didn't break or shatter. If the matter of her body really did react like plastic or rubber, then receiving a large intake of energy would be similar to the time he was seven and angry and stuck one of his dad's action figures in the microwave. The thought made him a little sick.

"Get her here quick as you can. I'll see if I can figure something out." Tearing off the headset, he pushed away from the counter and jogged towards one of his storage units. If Astrid didn't have such a strange composition, they could have taken her to a hospital, but for the sake of her secret identity, she was stuck with them. It was a helpless kind of feeling.

Hiccup dug and dug until he came across the first rough draft of Ruff's cuffs. They were bulky and difficult to use in battle, but in theory, maybe he could use them to absorb the energy from Twist. After he'd gutted the heavy metal bracelets, he threw the excess steel in his scrap pile and carefully carried the Frankenstein-ish invention to the main floor bathroom. There he set them in the sink and snatched the shower curtain aside.

He had run frigid water into the bathtub and was emptying the freezer's ice bin into when he heard the clamor coming from the exit to the roof.

"Get her arm!"

"I _have_ her arm."

"You have her elbow! Get her _arm_."

Hiccup ran to meet them, to assess the damage for himself. He hadn't known what to expect, but it definitely wasn't the sight of Astrid practically dripping from Snotlout's arms. He was trailed by Ruffnut and Tuffnut, who were attempting to keep the blonde's limbs from stretching to the floor. Her suit was rumpled and distorted in places, where the muscle had flattened and no longer filled out the fabric.

It was exactly as Fishlegs had said- she was melting.

"Oh gods," Hiccup choked, and then shook his head to shake off the disturbing thoughts. "In here, guys. Quick. We've got to cool her down."

They followed him, all six teens cramming into the bathroom. He directed his cousin to set her down in the chilly water, and was turning to retrieve the skeletal cuffs from the sink when he watched Astrid's serene expression slip beneath chunks of ice.

"Sh-" He only got out the first part of his swear before he was shoving Snotlout aside and half-climbing, half-tripping into the tub. "Snot, are you trying to _drown_ her?" The hero made some indignant comment, but Hiccup wasn't listening. Immediately shivering from the cold, he attempted to ignore the sharp protests of his body. He slid behind Astrid and adjusted her so that her head lolled back against his shoulder.

It should have been nice, having her framed between his legs. Any other day, he'd love to have her lying against his chest and his arms wrapped around her waist. Now, though, he could feel the density of her skull beneath the skin of her scalp, could feel how it bent and gave the way bone never should. It made his stomach roil.

"Ruff," he swallowed, his muscles screaming in pain. "C-cuffs in the sink. You know how to use them." To Tuffnut, he said, "Go get a thermometer from the kitchen. We'll have to be careful not to give her hypothermia." With trembling fingers, he unpinned the badge from her supersuit and tossed it over the side. Her earbud was missing- likely fallen out somewhere between there and the city, given the way her head had dismorphed.

He was only aware of the way the group was watching him moments later, when he was muttering words of encouragement to the unconscious girl and trying not to notice how much the cold of Ruff's hands in the water _hurt_. His glance caught their stares, and he broke off mid-sentence.

"What?" The question came out a little harsher than he intended, but luckily being dripping wet and freezing took some of the bite out of it.

Fishlegs wrung his hands in front of him. "She's going to be okay, Hiccup. It's gonna be okay."

Even the twins nodded with identical sympathetic expressions.

Hiccup furrowed his brow. It wasn't like Legs to be the calm in the storm. Or for the twins to be in sync. He was about to ask about their strangeness when Snotlout beat him to the punch.

"Why's everyone doing that?" he growled with aggravation. "He's fine."

The siblings exchanged looks. Fishlegs blushed down at his feet. "You don't have an audio feed to the Forge," the teenager answered.

"What's that got to do with it?" Hiccup blurted for his cousin- and for his own confusion. His best friend wouldn't meet his eyes.

Ruffnut raised a blonde brow at him from behind her white face mask. "We could hear your begging."

Tuffnut jerked a thumb towards the girl settled against Hiccup's chest. "Begging for her."

He flushed. Remembered the way he'd been shouting in a panic for them to respond. Soaking wet, blushing, and likely turning three shades of blue, he probably looked ridiculous and pathetic. "I would have been the same if it was one of you guys."

Three of the four looked skeptical.

He opened his mouth to protest, but Fishlegs held up his hands to interrupt him. "Just get her better. Let us know if we need to take shifts holding her."

The indignation died in Hiccup's throat. Blinking, he snuck a glance down at Astrid's face. Her mask was lost, and her face seemed to be starting to regain some semblance of normalcy. Even in her condition, her lashes were long and thick and golden. Her lips were pale, but full and prettily shaped. He nodded and shifted the girl in his arms.

"Yeah. Okay." He was silent for a moment, and then he asked, "How much did you guys hear?"

"You don't want to know."

"Dibs on telling Astrid."


	6. The League Q&A

**I need MORE OF THE INCREDIBLES AU! omg that was so AMAZING! I'M STILL GEEKING OUT ABOUT IT!**

 _Hahaha, I'm glad you enjoyed it! It felt so weird for me, but I'll do anything for wifey. I don't have nearly the time I'd like to continue it, but I do have some headcanons for this AU._

 _Hiccup becomes Tinker, as seen by the end of the drabble. He names his little batcave workshop The Forge, because he mentored under Blacksmith (Gobber). He basically spends all of his time either building fancy weaponry for the league, working on a stretchy suit that won't cut into Twist's (Astrid, obv) skin, and swatting his cat away from the computer screen while he monitors the league's tech stats during battles._

 _His cat, Toothless is the only animal allowed in the Tower (picture teen titans, that's basically what we've got here.) because Stoick and Hiccup basically live on site with the league. Toothless is always chewing on very sensitive Forge equipment, tearing holes in peoples' costumes, and causing general chaos, but the heroes come to accept that to get the coolest toys from Hiccup, they gotta be nice to the cat. Astrid, particularly, finds herself the victim of clawed pounces when she stretches/withdraws her arm or fingers out without paying attention._

 _Stoick and Hiccup's relationship is a secret, so they keep getting caught in like weirdly familial/intimate situations. They always like blush and stammer out excuses weirder than what's actually going on. Some people suspect, and some people are just jealous that the non super gets so much of The Vast's attention._

 _Snotlout actually doesn't make the league, to his extreme irritation. His super strength helped him sail through the qualifiers, but at a closer look, his teamwork scores were too low. Still, he doesn't take no for an answer and usually ends up showing up and working with the league anyways. Hiccup eventually makes him an unofficial league badge and later talks Stoick into letting him in._

 _Astrid doesn't socialize much at first. She's pretty hardened after witnessing the death of her uncle during a fight with a villain. Astrid is always in the Forge, talking to Hiccup while he works, because she likes the cool stuff he makes. They talk, and his sassy and sweet conversation style eventually gets her to open up. She's a great assistant, because no tool is too far for her to reach, and it fondly reminds her of her days side-kicking. It's her association and Hiccup's skill that gets all the heroes to respect him._

 _The twins can separately only control one element. Ruffnut, water. Tuffnut, fire. Their favorite skill, though, is using them together to create huge steam explosions._

 _Rolodexter (Fishlegs) and Hiccup have a sweet bromance. They end up sharing geek fests over Tinker inventions, and Rolodexter ends up getting tons of sweet gear because of it._


End file.
